Félix Faure

France state institutions Liberalism and republicanism 1841–1899 ○ Stroke

President who made the Russian alliance public, refused to reopen the Dreyfus case and died suddenly in the Élysée

Born in Paris in 1841, the son of a furniture maker, he started as a tanner and merchant at Le Havre and became a wealthy shipowner. Elected deputy for the Seine-Inférieure in 1881, he sat on the Left and served as under-secretary for the colonies in Jules Ferry's ministry from 1882 to 1885 and in Tirard's in 1888. He became vice-president of the Chamber in 1893 and minister of marine in Charles Dupuy's cabinet in 1894. When Casimir-Perier resigned in January 1895, the moderate republican factions united behind him to keep out Henri Brisson, and he was unexpectedly elected president. He received the Tsar in Paris in 1896 and returned the visit in 1897, after which the Franco-Russian Alliance was announced, and he treated the Dreyfus affair as res judicata, drawing criticism from Zola and Clemenceau. He died suddenly of a stroke in the Élysée Palace on 16 February 1899.

Also known as: Félix François Faure